[1] The fatwa is the fruit of a decade-long collaborative effort between a group of Sunni and Shia scholars at the Dar al-Taqreeb al-Madhahib al-Islamiyyah ("center for bringing together the various Islamic schools of thought") theological center at Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

[4] It is claimed that this fatwa, which admits Twelver Shias and Zaydi Shias who had been considered heretics and idolaters for hundreds of years, into mainstream Islam, was inspired by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.

[5] Nasser saw it as a tool to spread his appeal and influence across the entire Arab world.

[6] In 2012, due to drift towards Islamism in Al-Azhar, and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood into leadership, the dean of the Faculty of Islamic Studies at Al-Azhar issued a fatwa strongly opposed to the 1959 fatwa.

It forbade worship according to the Shia tradition and condemned as heretics anyone who insulted the wives or companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.